Born: 16 October 1928, United States
Died: 3 January 2010
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
American radical feminist philosopher and theologian Mary Daly taught courses in theology, feminist ethics, and patriarchy at Boston College for 33 years. She retired in 1999, after violating university policy by refusing to allow male students in her advanced women’s studies classes, though she did allow them in her introductory class and privately tutored those who wanted to take advanced classes. Daly argued that a male presence inhibited class discussion, but the college viewed the exclusion as gender discrimination.
Daly earned two doctorates in sacred theology and philosophy from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland and a doctorate in religion from Saint Mary’s College. She began teaching at the Jesuit-run Boston College in 1967. Following the publication of her first book, 1968’s The Church and the Second Sex, she was issued a short-term contract, but was eventually granted tenure due to support from the public and the (then all-male) student body.
In 1998, two male students brought a discrimination claim against the college, backed by the conservative Center for Individual Rights. When Daly absented herself from classes rather than admit the male students, Boston College revoked her tenure rights, on the basis that Daly had verbally agreed to retire. She brought her own suit against the college disputing violation of her tenure rights and claimed she was forced out against her will, resulting in a confidential out-of-court settlement
Daly published her account in the 2006 book, Amazon Grace: Recalling the Courage to Sin Big. Her other books include Beyond God the Father (1973), Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism (1978), Pure Lust: Elemental Feminist Philosophy (1984) and Websters’ First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language (1987).